Property rates on fibre - more....

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Read more! Keep being asked about the property rates on fibre...so many people don't seem to realise that there are business rates to be paid on any fibre, and the effect that this is having on NGA buildout...so....

I have gathered together yet more links on the subject to go with the previous links on fibre property / business rates and the VOA.

VOA presentation to the BSG in April 2009 (Download the presentation)
Computer Weekly article - Business rates stifle investment in broadband infrastructure 31st July
Philip Virgo's blog - Removing the biggest road block on the UK super highway
Fibre stream blog post - Latter day window tax
Guardian article - Dark days for fibre start ups - Feb 26 2009
VOA site - Section 870
Section 871

Please feel free to add any others in the comments......
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Cable companies continue to mislead the punters

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Read more! For those of us in the UK, Virgin's Mother of all broadband adverts claiming to be 'fibre optic' have been driving us to distraction for quite some time. (Virgin is a cable company so in their case what they are flogging is FTTC - Fibre To The Co-ax) Now the misleading of the public is continuing in Holland with this advert.....

The problem is that bodies set up to protect the public from misleading adverts eg the Advertising Standards Agency are in on the act, for instance, by making rulings about complaints made when the Virgin ads first started to air in 2008.

The point being that ISPS and telcos have redefined many aspects of the broadband world to suit their own ends viz the redefinition of "broadband" from 2Mbps+ symmetrical capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving voice, video and data (back in 1984) to "um...well, any data connection that we can get away with convincing Joe Public and government, Ofcom etc might be called 'broadband', however slow, incapable of doing more than one thing at once, asymmetric....." (you know the marketing spiel yourselves!).

The continuing failure by the telcos and ISPS to monitor their own marketing has not been assisted by Ofcom and other regulators, who seem to steer clear of getting involved in ensuring the consumers and customers are told the truth. All that is required is to lay down a few guidelines to telcos about what they rightly can and cannot call their products or claim about their networks.

Just because Fibre is the new black in the world of broadband, does not mean that everyone can suddenly include the word 'fibre' in their advertising to jump on the bandwagon. Unless consumers are accurately informed, and not misled by marketing departments, how on earth can they make the decisions about which products will suit their needs or understand how the changes in technology affect their ability to use 'broadband' to live, work and play online?

It is time for an EU wide enforcement of accurate advertising standards for the telcos before we have further consumer confusion with 'fibre broadband'. The rot has already set in, and it needs stopping NOW.

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The Dutch are at it again

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Read more! Seems Reggefiber and KPN are chucking 6-7 billion euros at FTTH in the Netherlands over the next 5-7 years with an ambitious aim of 100% FTTH coverage.

Nice to know other countries have companies/telcos who have seen the light, literally. Seems the Dutch regulator OPTA will make an announcement next Monday about the issue, and a green light has already been given by the competition authority (our Monopolies Commission, at a guess). A neat JV will be put in place, Glashart, of which KPN will have 41% of the holding with the option to increase that to a majority stake.

100% coverage. Hmmm, let's hazard a guess what percentage FTTH there will be in the UK by the time this type of project comes to fruition elsewhere in the EU, shall we? Especially after BT's 'threats' this week about not doing anything much without a far looser regulatory environment. (Which actually implies consumers and competition will be shoved into the background if the threat is taken seriously and BT (and its shareholders) is given the chance to have it all their own way).

I wish it was a co-operative JV, but even so, lucky bloody Dutch!!! Read more!

Broadband Map of NZ

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Read more! Can't beat this. New Zealand now has an ubercool map of broadband coverage and suppliers.

And we in UK and EU have........? I can't even find out whose is the fibre going up the A road within 500yds from me, let alone anything useful like where the notspots are likely to be for next gen.... Read more!

Successful 100 Gbps trial

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Read more! Nokia Siemens Networks and Verizon have successfully managed to transmit 100Gbps on a single wavelength over 1000 km. This takes us all ever closer to commercial 100Gbps traffic, no more excuses! Read more!

"Worst is first" FTTH call from Ofcom

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Read more! Anna Bradley (Ofcom Consumer Panel) reiterates what she said, with Ashley Highfield (BBC) and others, at the BSG conference.

The broadband have-nots should leapfrog everyone else in getting FTTH / NGA.

Hearty applause from me, and undoubtedly many, many others who have struggled to be heard for so long. We have been saying this for over a decade now, since long before broadband became a household word, ADSL trigger levels and so on. Our Notspot report in 2005 also generated more than enough evidence to show this was required, economically for rural business and public sector service provision, and socially.

As a consumer of this pathetic service our dear regulator and incumbent(s) are apparently legitimately allowed to call "broadband" (to many consumers' disgust), I hope we will now see advances towards resolving a problem of national import, and which is having dire social and economic impact.

If anyone has any doubts about this 'worst is first' theory (with compliments to Sagentia for coining the term), I strongly urge you to pick up the JFDI Community Broadband books. I didn't write them alone. They are the words and experiences of communities who put their own first gen broadband in place, where the telcos refused to tread for precisely the same reasons they are citing now for not doing FTTH / NGA, and clearly illustrate why FTTH / NGA is required in rural areas FIRST.

NOT FTTC, let's make that clear. FTTC is NOT, and never will be, NGA.

The copper in rural areas is, in many cases, aged, appalling or aluminium. For FTTH / NGA purposes, it is entirely obsolete, useless, and better value sold on the open market, as Peter Cochrane first suggested way back when. The first hint of rain and our supposed broadband connections can and do dither at less than dial up speeds. There are many who don't even have this privilege though - I can introduce you to hundreds, if not thousands of them, who haunt my inbox.

There should be no concessions made to keep the copper in the first mile, whatsoever.

Whatever the cost to whomsoever does the copper replacement for rural FTTH, it is as nothing to the benefits to be reaped bringing "health, wealth and learning" opportunities across the digital divide. And hence the economic benefit to UK PLC.

Those of us behind Community FTTH, 5TTH and FiWi Pie are within an ace of making announcements about sustainable "Worst is First" broadband development and opportunities. Thank you, Anna. Your timing is impeccable!

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Oh dear. How long will this be allowed to continue?

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Read more! Virgin's new ad - The Mother of all Broadband is surely misleading customers?

Um, have I missed something? Isn't the old NTL network co-ax not fibre optic? I know the Telewest network that VM acquired was substantially FO but surely VM can't say that their network is FO? Or is there an 'up to' deception again? As in ' up to x% of our network is fibre optic'.

And 20Mbps is hardly 'the mother of all broadband'. What slick marketing device are they going to use when they finally get round to offering 100Mbps? Or 1Gbps? (which of course we know FO is perfectly capable of, even today).

And spot the No download limits, but an acceptable usage policy applies. So, there are download limits then. So, really it should say 'Limited downloads' because they are being limited.

The ISPs are not helping encourage users to start demanding FTTH and true broadband services if they perpetually mislead them into believing that what is on offer now is all bells and whistles, nor by this constant abuse of the English language. Nor do these type of adverts help the politicos, potential investors, and so on, understand what is going on.

C'mon Ofcom, at the very least insist on the correct use of language, and some honesty in these ads.

Remember your statutory duties:

Ofcom's Statutory Duties
Under the Communications Act 2003:

" 3(1) It shall be the principal duty of Ofcom, in carrying out their functions;
(a) to further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters; and
(b) to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting competition"

Spot the important terms - citizens and consumers.





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